


the lights, the tree, you and me

by faintingviolet



Series: Buddiemas 2020 Prompts [11]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: 12 Days of Buddiemas 2020 (9-1-1 TV), Caring Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, First Christmas, First Christmas Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, SO MUCH FLUFF, because they're all special to him, but Eddie didn't realize, canon compliant through the end of season three
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28253763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faintingviolet/pseuds/faintingviolet
Summary: Eddie could feel Buck vibrating with excitement next to him. As soon as the calendar turned to December, Buck had been ramped up about Christmas. He was used to a certain amount of this, Buck had always had a soft spot for Christmas, and for making it special. But this year he seemed revved up beyond anything Eddie had previously experienced.He couldn’t figure it out.He felt incredibly stupid though when Hen told him what he had been missing.Or Eddie figures out how he wants to make his and Buck's first official Christmas together special.(December 21 - First Christmas Together)
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Series: Buddiemas 2020 Prompts [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057301
Comments: 5
Kudos: 137
Collections: 9-1-1 Tales, Buddiemas 2020





	the lights, the tree, you and me

Eddie could feel Buck vibrating with excitement next to him. As soon as the calendar turned to December, Buck had been ramped up about Christmas. He was used to a certain amount of this, Buck had always had a soft spot for Christmas, and for making it special. But this year he seemed revved up beyond anything Eddie had previously experienced.

He couldn’t figure it out.

He felt incredibly stupid though when Hen told him what he had been missing.

It had started simple enough, he and Hen were sitting up a little later than everyone else having a quiet cup of tea as they often did. They both liked the ritual of it, it helped them wind down after the stress of a tough call. They had been talking about their plans for the holiday, what they had gotten for Denny and Christopher respectively, when Eddie mentioned that he didn’t know what to make of Buck’s exuberance this year and was coming up empty on the gift front as well.

“Eddie, you can’t be this oblivious.”

“What are you talking about Hen?”

“You really don’t know why Buck is so excited for Christmas this year?”

“No?”

“Eddie.”

“What?” He really didn’t know and no amount of Hen staring at him like he had grown a second head was going to shake it loose. He just held onto his mug of tea and waited her out.

“When did you and Buck start dating?”

“March.”

“So that’s how many months now?”

“Nine.” Eddie couldn’t figure out where Hen was going, he had no idea how calendar math was going to help him sort this out.

“Okay, and have you celebrated any major, gift giving holidays in those nine months?”

“Birthdays.”

“ _Eddie_.”

And then it hit him like a ton of bricks, “Oh shit.”

“There you go. Have you not been sleeping or something? You are usually much more with it than this.”

He just glowers at Hen, embarrassed.

“We’ve celebrated the past three Christmases together, Hen. It slipped my mind.”

“Just because you were pining for him something awful this time last year doesn’t mean that you’ve actually had your first Christmas together.”

And that was where he got hung up. What the hell was he supposed to do to make this Christmas special. All of their Christmases so far had been special in their own ways.

The first Christmas he’d been in L.A. Shannon had come back. Buck had been a part of their holidays though, taking Christopher to go see Santa with him, exchanging gifts. Just being his friend when he desperately needed one.

The second one Buck had been with them more, from being around the house while they decorated and made gingerbread houses to secretly working with Athena and organizing to have everyone’s families join them at the station for a proper Christmas dinner so that they wouldn’t have to miss out just because they were on shift. It had been one of the most thoughtful things Eddie had ever seen in action. But that’s just who Buck was, the person who is always thinking about everyone else, making sure they have what they need.

The next year had been smaller, COVID had a way of screwing everything up in 2020 but Buck had been part of their Christmas, he was in their bubble, because how could he not be? Eddie absolutely wouldn’t have it any other way. Abuela had cooked and it had been a small, family dinner. With Buck, who was very much family as far as Eddie was concerned. And Hen was right, the warm feelings that had been brewing from the Tsunami were boiling over by that point, he had admitted to himself that he was in love with his best friend months before after he had been trapped underground, but he hadn’t gotten up the nerve to tell Buck. He didn’t know how he would react.

It took him another 10 weeks and a stern talking to from Pepa to get his bravery in order.

But that brought them to now, to their first Christmas as a couple. Not friends, not the family that they chose, but partners in every sense of the word. Now that Eddie realized why Buck was so excited, he was just as stymied as he had been before he knew. He had no idea how to make this Christmas unique for Buck.

He spent the next few days worrying over it, concern that he was going to fail this important milestone in their relationship growing as each day passed.

So, he called his abuela, he was sure Isabel Diaz would know what to do.

Eddie was unimpressed with her advice.

“He just wants the same Christmas as in years past, Eddie. You know he loves just being with you and Christopher.”

“But this is an important step, right? Like I’m not imagining this?”

“You aren’t but Buck isn’t going to expect some overblown romantic gesture. Although you might want to prepare yourself.”

“Abuela, I can’t let him do something and not be able to reciprocate it.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

Next, he tried Maddie, certain Buck’s sister would be willing to help him.

He explained his predicament, and relayed Hen’s making fun of him for missing it and his Abuela’s advice to just be normal.

“She’s not wrong, Eddie. You know the thing he wants most is to just be with you, to have a normal, family holiday. The kind he and I didn’t have growing up.”

“I know, but this is different.”

“It’s really not. I know Hen made you feel badly about not realizing, but I think it’s actually a sign of how good things are between you. They’ve all been important to you. He’s important to you. I trust my brother’s heart in your care, Eddie. Don’t make yourself nuts about this; he wouldn’t want that.”

“I don’t want to be in a position where he’s made some big romantic gesture and I haven’t. I want him to know, Maddie, how much I love him. I don’t want him to have any reason to doubt it.”

Eddie startled himself. He and Maddie had gotten closer, but this kind of emotional honesty was a little more than their usual.

“You haven’t given him one, and you won’t. If I promise you that he isn’t going over the top will you believe me? Because he really isn’t.”

Eddie watched Maddie closely, looking for any tells that she wasn’t being completely honest. He didn’t see any, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t capable of hiding it from him.

“You promise?”

“I promise. Just do what feels right, don’t worry about making it ‘special’.” Eddie let out a tight laugh as he watched Maddie make air quotes around special.

“Okay.”

Eddie decided that the way he wanted to celebrate their first official Christmas was by recreating his favorite parts of their previous Christmases. He set up date night with Buck to go out to dinner and do a little last-minute shopping for Christopher, and he made sure they took a walk around the fountain from the first year, hand in hand. Buck told him the story again of the Elf who thought they were a family. Eddie smiled and kissed him, soaking in Buck’s exuberance.

Then, he set up a gingerbread house making party, calling in a favor with Athena to help with the set up. Their chosen family gathered together and made an utter mess of his house. He loved it. Finally, he spoke to Abuela and they invited Maddie and Chim to join their Christmas Eve dinner, recreating the small family dinner from the year before but this time with more family. The look of joy on Buck’s face had made every bit of planning and cajoling worth it.

By Christmas morning Eddie felt content. Maddie had been right, all their Christmases together had been important to him, he wanted to pull new traditions for them from those happy times. He was looking forward to many more Christmases to come.

Their morning was a little more leisurely than in year’s past, Chris not waking them up right away, patient about opening gifts. When it was time though, Eddie felt like he had come up with a gift that could express his hopes without being too much, without feeling out of character. He just hoped Buck liked it. The soft smile on his face made Eddie think he had hit just the right note.

“I wanted to get you an ornament for our tree, and I wanted to start a tradition for us. I did some hunting online and the museum makes snowflake ornaments for each year, based on something in the collection. They’ve been doing it since at least the 70s.” He knew that because he’d been looking for the ones from each of their birth years. He hadn’t found them yet, but he’d set up alerts. He had hope.

Buck looks up at him, holds eye contact, and waits for Eddie to continue.

“I know you miss snow and I thought we could get the new snowflake ornament each year. What do you think?”

“I love it Eds. Thank you.”

Eddie watched as Buck tenderly handled the silver ornament, shifting it in the light before standing up and adding it to the tree. Eddie imagined what their tree would look like in the future, a series of silver and gold snowflakes tucked in amongst their other ornaments, catching and reflecting the lights on the tree. Documenting their relationship, mirroring their love.

**Author's Note:**

> The ornament that Eddie gets Buck is the one that the Metropolitan Museum of Art puts out each year. I've been collecting them for my own tree for years, and think they are simply beautiful. 
> 
> This work is up without a beta read, so all mistakes are mine. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are always welcome, even if I don't always manage to respond.


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